


How Rare and Beautiful It Is That We Exist

by interorbitalteeth



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Drabble, Emotion and science can coexist, Fluff, Joe is soft and emotional, M/M, Nicky is also soft and emotional but he hides it better, OTP: it's like destiny, The title and part of the fic are inspired by the song "Saturn" by Sleeping at Last, quantum physics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27231736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interorbitalteeth/pseuds/interorbitalteeth
Summary: Joe hates quantum physics, and how they apply to his love of Nicky.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 3
Kudos: 73





	How Rare and Beautiful It Is That We Exist

**Author's Note:**

> Cross posted from my Tumblr, asdigenova.

“I hate quantum physics,” Joe mumbles out of nowhere, into the side of Nicky's neck. They're laying in bed in the early hours, luxuriating in the closeness of their bodies.

“Huh?” Nicky hadn't even thought that Joe was awake yet.

“I hate the idea that we're never actually touching anything,” he explains. “Because atoms are 99% empty space, so when we touch something, we're more than likely just lining up the empty spaces in our atoms with the empty spaces in the object's atoms.”

“I still don't get it,” Nicky says. “Why do you hate that?”

“Because it means when we touch eachother, we're not actually touching!” Joe says, his voice cracking slightly. “When I hold you, there is an infinitesimal tiny space between us where the atoms that we're formed out of are unable to touch. And we can never, ever cross that distance! I want to fill the empty spaces in my atoms with you, but I can't! ….Stop laughing, I'm serious!”

Nicky covers his mouth with his hand, stifling his chuckles.

“I am not mocking you, hayati,” he says. “I laugh because, even after a thousand years, the depth of your love still surprises me. That you would want to be so close to me that the molecules that make up our bodies would bond to eachother. That we would become truly inseparable.”

He wriggles around in Joe's grasp until they face to face and gives his husband a kiss on the nose, hoping to soothe some of the distress he's clearly feeling.

“I want to always have you with me,” Joe says. “When I cannot touch you, it pains me, Nicolo. To learn that I am, on a certain level, never touching you, it hurts more than I can bear.”

He strokes Nicky's cheek, his fingers gently tapping against the bones in his face. Nicky smiles fondly.

“Then don't think about such things, my darling,” he says. “Think about the wonder that you and I were created at all. Of the millions of combinations our atoms could have taken, the billions of forms, we, against all odds, became us. And against even greater odds, we were lucky enough to meet. The beauty and improbability of that. Think about that instead.”

“Destiny,” Joe says softly. “It's like destiny.”

Nicky chuckles again and kisses him on the lips. The soft early morning light illuminates them, photons from distant stars making the journey just to light this singular moment. Two improbable, impossible lovers embracing and kissing, the atoms that made them just barely not touching.


End file.
